A CFD-Based, Application-Oriented, Integrated Simulation Environment for Rapid Prediction of Aerodynamic Sensitivities of 3-D Configurations

Within the frame of a series of initiatives aimed at improving effectiveness of its aircraft design and analysis capabilities, the Military Division of Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) is developing MIDAS, a multidisciplinary integration framework for a suite of numerical codes suitable to quickly and still accurately assess aircraft performance. As MIDAS specifically targets support of configurational studies in a Conceptual and Preliminary Design environment, peculiar requirements such as scope, range of applicability, and robustness of the system components, reliability of results, care-free operability, and fast response times have to be properly addressed. This paper deals with the parts of the system that starting from the definition of the aircraft geometry allows the user to obtain - in a highly automated way - the basic aerodynamic data, as required by the down-stream MIDAS processes - e.g. performance analysis, configuration sizing, structural analysis and preliminary flight simulation investigation. Primarily tailored to fit conceptual design applications, the functionalities of the mesh generation module has been expanded to allow analysis engineers with limited specific expertise to use advanced CFD simulation tools for complex aircraft and spacecraft configurations starting from no more input that a three-side layout blueprint.